Increased volumes in most major commodities transported by the company over the period drove these results. The company's cost containment initiatives resulted in costs growing by an inflation-beating 5.1% to R11.2 billion and yielding R1.6 billion in savings compared to planned expenditure. These savings were achieved despite higher personnel costs, a 17-day strike and electricity tariffs.
Commenting on the performance, acting group chief executive, Chris Wells, says, "Our Quantum Leap strategy aims at changing the trajectory of performance improvements to higher levels. Pleasingly, this strategy is beginning to produce meaningful results. On rail, both the iron ore and coal lines recorded their best levels during September and are both likely to record strong growth in volumes compared to the previous year."
On the ports side, container volumes showed strong growth to over 2 million TEUs, while automotive volumes grew by 91.3% to 307 177 units, buoyed to some extent by the FIFA Soccer World Cup. Further, productivity, especially gross crane moves per hour (GCH), is showing improvements across the board. The new container terminal at Pier 1 in Durban is now operating at 30 GCH - a 50% improvement of on last year's average of 20 GCH. Durban Container Terminal, where improvements have not been as significant, requires management focus.
Transnet, which has committed to invest R93.4 billion over the next five years - in addition to the R73 billion already invested in the previous five years - continued its investment programme over the six months. Encouragingly for South Africa's future economic growth, it invested R10.2 billion on revamping its infrastructure (from R8.7 billion in the previous period). The company invested R5.5 billion in providing additional capacity and R4.7 billion upgrading existing infrastructure.
Capex update
